Creating your own artist’s online portfolio website

Online Portfolio Websites

Gone are the days when you had to be a computer guru to create simple web sites, there are many useful sites online which show you “how to make a website”. Just Google that term and up they come. These sites either show you how to build a website or can direct you to others who do. There is a lot of freely available software on the web such as WordPress which allow you to build a site with website templates. This is a WordPress website. There are plenty of other free website maker sites on the world wide web that can help you build your online portfolio art gallery.

You still have to pay for the hosting and registration of your url (your website name) but the development of the site is much simpler with these web design packages.

Before you start creating a website use the internet to look for website ideas by looking at artistic websites which appeal to you. There is nothing wrong with this and it will help you quickly clarify what you would like in your own website.

If you still don’t see yourself as a website builder but would prefer to have someone else create a site for you then just search for “cheap websites” and you will find a whole bunch of people who offer low cost web site construction some of which you can then update yourself.

Now days it is relatively inexpensive to set up a web presence through your own web site.

Ideally your should have your own url such as my own www.joecartwright.com.au. This is something like your own home address on the internet and as its popularity develops it will become part of your brand as an artist and a very useful marketing tool.

If you do not want to go to the expense of creating a site or having one created for you, there are a number of other options to enable you to easily establish a web presence.

One such site is Redbubble; which allows you to promote your work on their site, mainly for sales as cards, prints and posters, etc.

After signing up with them (its free) you are able to very quickly and easily post your artwork on a page on their website and develop this to a full online portfolio, this is what mine looks like: Joe Cartwright on RedBubble. It is a very easy process and does not cost anything while offering the opportunity to sell some of your work. You are also able to use a site like Redbubble to communicate with and get feedback from other artists on the World Wide Web. Another similar website for artists is FineArtAmerica.com.

Artist’s Blogs

Other free options are to create a blog with services like Google’s Blogger. These free services may not allow you to create award winning websites but they can still create some quite impressive ones very quickly. Give them a go as they are free and you have nothing to lose. They also provide you with the opportunity to trial what you can personally do with the internet before you go ahead and create a website with your own unique url. Blogs can be run in conjunction with your online artist’s portfolio web site as a blog allows you to communicate quickly with those interested in your artwork and activities. I have a Blogger blog if you would like to look at it at: Joe Cartwright’s Watercolor Blog.

I hope you found this article of some benefit. It was not designed to show you how to create a website; the internet is loaded with that information, but to give you an idea of some of the potential benefits as an artist of having one.

Watercolors Step By Step

My second book Watercolors, Step-By-Step, is now available through Amazon as a paperback and eBook. It is a great follow on from my first book if you have already read that one and would like more step by step demonstrations.